FINAL FLIGHT: The Virgin Atlantic/Scaled Composites GlobalFlyer is poised to make its final flight as early as May 23 when Steve Fossett will pilot the aircraft from its base at Salina, Kansas, to Dulles International Airport, Va. for induction into the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center. May 24 is a backup date if weather conditions force postponement of the May 23 flight. A flyover of the new museum facility and the Dulles area is planned for about 1:15 p.m. Eastern time before Fossett lands and turns the aircraft over to the Smithsonian Institution.
CONTRACTOR COUNT: More than three years into Iraq operations, the U.S. government has launched an effort trying to take a headcount of defense contractors working in Iraq. A May 16 memorandum from the White House's procurement policymaking office unveiled an effort by the U.S. Central Command and the U.S.-led Multinational Force-Iraq to "ascertain a full accounting of contractors" who essentially live in Iraq and work under a Defense Department contract.
RADAR RUMBA: Cracks are beginning to emerge in NATO's plans to buy the TCAR multinational radar for its Allied Ground Surveillance (AGS) aircraft system. That radar may be augmented by the U.S. Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program sensor, a sophisticated active electronically scanned array radar built by a Northrop Grumman-Raytheon team. Already, NATO is limiting TCAR's application to the A321 platform while an off-the-shelf alternative may be proposed for the unmanned Global Hawk adjunct. The U.S.
SEARCH AND RESCUE: The Russian civil defense ministry has agreed to set up a joint emergency response unit with Germany to provide search and rescue services using the new Beriev Be-200 jet-powered amphibian. The unit will be supported by EADS, which has a 10 percent stake in Be-200 developer Irkut.
CBP PREDATORS: Customs and Border Protection's unmanned aircraft efforts are set to get a dramatic boost under new attention to border security. But the Homeland Security Department agency first may have to convince lawmakers that its Predator B system is reliable. The White House is asking Congress for $95 million for two additional unmanned aircraft in its supplemental spending request this month, and the Bush administration already requested $10.3 million for the General Atomics Predator program in fiscal 2007.
THINK INTERNATIONAL: Rear Adm. Jeff Wieringa, head of the Navy's international program office, encourages prospective contractors to "think international" as they craft their bids for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle program. "There is a lot of interest internationally in this program," Wieringa says, and the Navy might sign an initial bilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) for international cooperation on BAMS by this summer.
COLLISION AVOIDANCE: Donald Rumsfeld, diplomat. The Defense secretary declines to be dragged into a dispute about whether the FAA is impeding application of UAVs to homeland security missions. When Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) asks Rumsfeld if he agrees that UAVs "are not given a fair chance to participate within the National Airspace System" and that "the FAA holds things up," Rumsfeld abstains.
HAA BAMS: A high-altitude airship (HAA) is the best platform to provide persistent broad-area maritime surveillance, according to David Kier, Lockheed Martin Corp. vice president and managing director of missile defense. At $2 per pound per operational hour, an HAA is twice as cost-effective as an unmanned aircraft and four-times better than a space-based system, says the former National Reconnaissance Office deputy director and Air Force principal deputy assistant secretary for space.
SOUNDING UNIT: Eumetsat officials say they have been ensured that a problem affecting an advanced microwave sounding unit (AMSU) intended for the organization's first polar orbiting satellite, Metop-1, has been resolved, and should not prevent a scheduled launch atop a Starsem Soyuz Fregat booster on July 17. The problem, related to lubrication in the ball bearings, resulted in the hardware being removed from the spacecraft, currently awaiting launch in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and shipped back to supplier Northrop Grumman for modification.
NGATS GAP?: The Government Accountability Office is studying whether NASA's reorientation of its aeronautics program toward fundamental research will leave a gap between the agency's work on key technologies for NGATS, the next-generation air transportation system, and the level of development industry will need to finish the job. The FAA's Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee estimates that gearing up for the FAA to fill the gap would add five years to the NGATS program.
KEI CUTS: Contractors working on the Missile Defense Agency's Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program are lobbying Capitol Hill to stave off proposed cuts to its $406 million fiscal 2007 budget request. KEI has taken hits from authorizers in both chambers of Congress, with the House Armed Services Committee cutting $100 million and the Senate Armed Services Committee removing $200 million. "We're obviously working with the Hill right now to try to explain ... what they get for that investment," says Michael Booen, vice president of advanced missile defense for Raytheon.
NASA R&D: As NASA and the White House work to develop the aeronautics research and development policy that Congress has ordered, they should be careful to ensure the ultimate R&D program matches the needs of its potential users in industry, an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences recommends. The panel, set up at the request of NASA's aeronautics mission directorate, calls for "close relationships with external customers and users, engaging them very early" in planning.
The Coast Guard's next Deepwater recapitalization program contract will run 43 months, not the full 60 months like the current award, reflecting a "good" performance review of the Lockheed Martin Corp./Northrop Grumman Corp. joint venture leading the massive rebuilding effort.
FREMM FRIGATES: European armaments agency Occar has issued a contract to a Franco-Italian team led by Armaris and Orizzonte for the development and production of the first two Fremm frigates intended for Italy. The contract for the first eight French vessels was let in November 2005. Italy is to receive 10 of the multimission frigates and France will get 17.
CINCINNATI - Retrofit of General Electric T700-type engines powering U.S. Army/Boeing AH-64 Apache and Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters into a new 701D configuration is swinging into high gear at the Corpus Christi Army Depot.
Lockheed Martin Corp. is hoping to conduct a test of a proposed defense system against cruise and ballistic missile attacks on the United States, but the window of opportunity is closing as the Missile Defense Agency has yet to obligate $8 million for the effort, according to the company's vice president and managing director of missile defense.
NASA opted for the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-68 engine to power its next-generation moon rocket in part because the factory that built the Saturn V can still handle the 33-foot diameter tankage that went into it.
NEXT IN LINE: Wes Bush continues his rapid rise through the corporate ranks at Northrop Grumman. Last week's promotion of the 45-year-old chief financial officer to president of the company positions him as the heir apparent to chairman/CEO Ron Sugar, observers on Wall Street say. Sugar came to Northrop Grumman in 2002 when it acquired TRW, where he was running U.K-based TRW Aeronautical Systems. He became president of Northrop Grumman's space business before being promoted to CFO last year.
SATELLITE SHIPS: The United Nations' International Maritime Organization says its Maritime Safety Committee is discussing the proposed adoption of new regulations on satellite-based long-range identification and tracking (LRIT) of ships under the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded Raytheon $6.7 million to spend 12 months working on the Network Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE), a new concept for an air-launched short-range missile interceptor based on the Advanced Medium-Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM).
May 23 - 24 -- Spectrum Management for Defense, "Maximizing and Protecting Technology's Greatest Natural Resource," Hilton Arlington, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.india.org. June 1 -- Bank of America's Aerospace and Defense Supplier Conference, supported by McAleese & Associates, P.C., Four Seasons Hotel, Boston, Mass. For more information or live webcast information call Katie Weisgerber at (646) 366-4800.
